Energy consumption is a growing concern in the design and maintenance of buildings. Intelligent building design and energy efficient building components can make a great difference in the cost of operating a building over the building's lifetime.
Building energy usage and energy usage efficiency are areas of increasing concern due to rising energy costs and increasing levels of building regulations. Consequently, there is an increasing need for energy audits on buildings, including both for existing buildings for the purpose of retrofitting and improving energy efficiency, and for buildings in either the design or construction phase.
Building energy audits, modeling, performance analysis, and identification of beneficial retrofits have traditionally been fragmented activities, when in fact there is natural synergy for information flow. Processes that integrate these activities and exploit common data will improve efficiency and the quality of energy outcomes.
Consumers in the building sector may hire human auditors to perform an audit at one of three levels of completeness as defined by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). An audit is typically conducted with the expectation of receiving a summary report, retrofit recommendations, and/or energy models to be used for certification.
Unfortunately, in the prior art there is substantial variability in human-generated building energy audits. A prior art human-based energy audit may suffer from a substantial variability in interpretation of the three audit levels. A prior art human-based energy audit may suffer from a substantial variability in the cost of the process. But the most significant drawback in the prior art is that a prior art energy audit may suffer from a substantial variability in the quality of the result.
Tools and processes that gather and analyze pertinent data consistently and efficiently are required to address this widespread problem. As energy efficiency expectations continue to rise, there is a need for a fast, inexpensive, and most of all uniform building energy assessment process that can make investment-grade recommendations for building retrofits.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.